EREBIA. By H. Frhr. v. d. Goltz. 
I consider it incorrect that many authors attach so much importance to the colour, be it brown or 
yellow, of the marginal bands of Erebia. With few exceptions the ground colour is more readily describable 
as red and as a rule rust-red, sometimes fulvous or fuscous, occasionally grey-red. 
Nothing has been altered in Eiffinger’s system. It has only to be mentioned that of the species, say 
from edda to nero. a few would be more correctly grouped with the Callerebia instead of the Erebia and 
Eiffinger himself already indicated this. For this reason species of Callerebia newly found in Thibet and 
West China are not included. 
One blemish in the subsequent particulars is the absence of details of the early stages. The necessary 
knowledge is lacking. It must however be remarked that the contention that the larvae, especially of many 
Alpine Erebia require 2 years to mature is proved to be a legend. Vorbrodt has ascertained that all Swiss 
Erebia only hibernate once and as a matter of fact in the larval state with the exception of the high mountain 
forms of euryale and ligea of which the former hibernate twice, firstly in the ova and secondly as larvae and 
the latter once or twice as larvae. 
For illustrative purposes we have selected primarily newly discovered species or species not yet figured 
in our work, secondly especially remarkable new forms of species that had already been i! lustrated and here and 
there a former illustration is amplified by a more characteristic reproduction. It is much to be deplored that 
inspite of every'endeavour it has not been possible to obtain specimens of all species that have so far not 
been illustrated. 
The Erebia are a primeval Genus, originally without exception mountain insects of very wide distri¬ 
bution. They must have already existed when bridges of land connected the now separated Continents of the 
World. This is the only way by which we can explain the fact that for instance Erebia tyndarus occurs with 
remarkably slight variations on the Central asiatic mountain chains, in the Caucasus, in the Balkans, thoughout 
the Alps, in the Abruzzi Mountains, on the Spanish mountains as well as in the mountain ranges of North 
America. The catastrophes of the early ages of this world and especially the ice periods have presumably driven 
the Erebia from the mountains to the flat land. But only very few have become really acclimatized there 
(medusa and perhaps aethiops), a few more {ligea, stygne, epiphron) have settled in middle altitudes, epiphron 
however always selecting the highest parts. These species without any exception occur simultaneously still 
in the higher alpine regions in more or less sharply defined alpine forms (according to Vorbrodt medusa occurs 
in the alps at an altitude of 2200 m, aethiops even to 2400 m). The Erebia belong altogether to the butterflies 
mounting to the highest altitudes in the mountains. In Central Asia they are found on heights of 4—5000 m 
and in the Zermatt district of the Swiss Alps four out of 18 kinds occurring there, exist at altitudes ex¬ 
ceeding 3000 m. 
In toto there are at present some 99 Erebia species including the species of Callerebia mentioned under 
Erebia in Vol. 1 and 9. The Swiss Alps are the home of not less than 23 species out of the 41 european species. 
The Spanish Mountains come next with 18—19 kinds, the Southern Alps only have 3, the Western Alps 2 kinds 
which are endemic to them, the polar region 7 species. According to latest research a number of species hitherto 
considered purely of asiatic origin ( fasciata Btlr., discoidalis Ky., dabanensis Ersch., edda Men., rossii Curt.) 
also occur in the extreme North East of Europe. The Caucasus are poor in Erebia, whilst the Central Asiatic 
high Mountain Ranges, especially the Altai and Thianshan are very prolific. In all there are 54 species in Asia, 
of which 5 belong to the Indo-Australian territory, 14 species being in common wdth Europe. Besides there are 
2 species in New Zealand *), about a dozen in the high mountains of the U.S.A. in North America (Colorado and 
Alaska) **), which are very closely similar to most European and Asiatic sorts. In Patagonia in South America 
one genuine species of Erebia has its habitat and in Bolivia there are 2 Manerebia that are related to the Erebia. 
Er. epiphron Enoch. In epiphron as in a few other Erebia species the main differences as to the character- epiphron. 
istics of the various local races consist in the greater or lesser development of the decorative marks (bands, 
ocelli and pupils). The form most richly decorated is the name-form from the Harz Mountains (= hercyniae hercyniae. 
Petry), very close to it is sudetica Petry from the silesian mountains, w r hich differs by the slightly lesser sudetica. 
development of the red surrounded ocelli on the underside of the hindwings and the less distinct outline of 
the bands on the upperside posteriorly and the absence of the white centres in the eyes of the upperside in 
the $. The next richly decorated group is formed by vogesiaca Goltz {= mackeri Fuchs) from the Vosges vogesiaca. 
Mountains and pyrenaica H.-Schdff. from the East Pyrenees. Both these still have a distinct rust-red band over pyrenaica. 
all wings which inclines to dissolve into separate spots. A few $$ are scarcely differentiable from the name 
form especially when they exceptionally also show white pupils in the ocelli, the ocelli are as a rule distinct 
and numerous, being somewhat larger in the forms from the East Pyrenees (which besides have more pointed 
*\ 
/ 
**) see Vol. 5. p. 237. 
see Vol. 9, p. 1110. 
